SUPPORTIVE FACULTY, DIVERSE OPPORTUNITIES FOUNDATION FOR OUTSTANDING RESEARCH CAREER By Charlotte Peak (’13)
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n spring 2012, Alix Shield was finishing up her Honours thesis at Acadia and getting ready to visit University of Saint Andrews, Scotland, to present at a conference on Harry Potter. Though at the time she “never imagined that (she’d) be welcomed into this world of scholarship,” the trip turned out to be the first step in a burgeoning research career. Now a PhD candidate in the Department of English at Simon Fraser University, Shield uses contemporary digital humanities methods to analyze Indigenous literatures. She is especially interested in “paratext” – the framing elements, such as the title, foreword, preface and afterword – and the way this mediates our reading of a text. “In my work, I’m reimagining the ways we can utilize the paratext to decolonize and repatriate works of 20th Century Indigenous literature,” Shield says.
GROWING OPPORTUNITIES Shield’s time as an undergraduate in Acadia’s English department set her in good stead for a career in research. “Because of the relatively small size of the University, I found that many work opportunities kept leading to bigger and better ones,” she says.
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ACADIA BULLETIN Fall 2018
Shield worked for a summer as a Research Assistant for Dr. Jon Saklofske, helping him create a user guide for a digital data visualization prototype called NewRadial. “This was my first experience working in the digital humanities,” Shield explains, “and was a formative moment in my academic career.” In her current research, Shield draws heavily on digital humanities methodologies and regularly attends the Digital Humanities Summer Institute, held annually at the University of Victoria. Last June, she co-taught her first class there, “Drupal for Digital Humanities Projects,” and over the past year she has helped develop a project website built in Drupal for a large-scale research project at SFU. Another key connection forged at Acadia came through the Distance Education Office. Shield landed a Research Assistantship working for Dr. Brenda Trofanenko, Canada Research Chair in Culture, Community, and Education. The experience sparked Shield’s interest in Indigenous literatures in Canada. “I am thankful and indebted to mentors such as Jon and Brenda,” Shield says. “They introduced me to their own fascinating fields of research and their enthusiasm and patience allowed me to gain confidence in my abilities and contributions as a researcher.”